Picked up a '99 Durango for sons first vehicle

As title says. Just bought this from my neighbor, well maintained suv. Has had ball joints, tie rods and rest of front end gone through and drives really nice. Has the typical front bumper rust but otherwise is really nice. Optioned with the magnum 360.

Is there anything I need to keep an eye out for with this model? He turns 16 this coming year and I told him pops will drive along with and work out any bugs that may come along till fully his.

Besides the front end stuff, we do a few heater cores, timing covers leaking coolant (and 3 way adjustable double roller chains while we are in it and advance the cam a couple degrees), intake plenum gaskets, thermostat gaskets, keep the trans serviced including adjust bands and that about covers %95 of what we do on them. We do a few engines and trannys but usually the abused ones only.

MPG sucks and they tend to respond well to a set of ford 4.6 injectors. You can also slot and advance the crank sensor a couple degrees for a hair more pep and MPG.

Thanks for the info 👍

I had one - great vehicles. I'd keep an eye on the rear diff in particular for pinion seal leaks. Catch it early and it is a low cost seal change.

My 99 was a great vehicle though it seemed to eat plenum gaskets.

The mopar fix was the "death flash" that the dealer did, the performance was never the same.

When it was new in 2wd it would smoke both rear 31" tires in muscle car fashion.

Red

I had two Durangos a 2000 and a 2002 they both had the 4.7 and were good vehicles the 02 I bought with 3.91s and the trailer tow pkg and it towed my 20 ft. enclosed trailer good and all over the place, I did however have the ball joints done under warranty and the rear started acting up at 78,000 miles so I traded it on my 08 H.Q.C. a friend still sees it around sometimes as the dealer I traded it to is near his town

I have an 01 360, that seems down on power.. The front end pop and creaks over bumps..
Its just crossed the 100k mark. Nice cheap truck that can be worked on easily

BTW, what are the signs of intake plenum leaks?

03 Dakota here 234k on mine but I have the 4.7. I would do a differential oil change and make sure the axle vent is free, check brake lines also, my front to rear axle line rotted out, check the hvac fan resistor plug end when the fan is on, make sure it doesn't get to hot to the touch, it's under the dash pass side. May have to clean the connectors and add a little dielectric grease.

Plenum leak sighns are useing oil, maybe not much as long as you drive nice and easy in town but then on the highway they suck oil like no tommorow. I have had a couple that would not use ANY oil as long as I was just in town and then suck it dry in a few hundred highway miles.

They ping like crazy when the plenum is leaking

Red

Thanks For the info..
I drove mine about 550 mile roundtrip last week.
It didn't use any oil..
SO that's a good sign

and what about the injector swap, I have tried to find better information on it. Its been hit or miss with sketchy details.
I read the 4 hole are better for mpg, midrange and idle..
Of course which injectors work, that's the part that seems to be missing
Thanks Mike

Go to the JY and tell them you need a set of injectors from a 97 F150 with a 4.6. They are quick and easy to identify as they are bright yellow. If they are not yellow don't buy them. Even the 5.4 used them and they came on everything under the sun from mustang GT to lincoln town cars crown vics... I usually find them bolted to an intake in the seats when the motor was pulled or bolted to a blown engine under the hood, the engines are pure garbage so lots of injectors and I usually pay $50 for 8. Probably the most common injector ever. I have even found them on older 5.0s just look for a yellow injector with 4 discharge nozzles as I have seen some very early 5.0s with the right color but one spray hole.

They bolt in a 99 and back magnum engine with no changes or modifications needed. They will work in a 2000-2003 5.2 3.9 or 5.9 magnum with a set of cheap plug in adapters from e-bay.

If you get em from a JY try to find some with the fuel rail still atatched as it helps keep dirt out of em and keeps the fuel from drying and sticking them.

HotRodDave, do you know what the flow rating of those injectors are? I'm trying to find some 15 lb @43psi injectors similar to the ford ones I have seen you praising before.

Ford yellow/orange are 19 lb

Thanks for the info!!
Its great stuff...

I think the white injectors off a 3.0 or 3.8 ferd V6 may be what you are after, I read somewhere they flow 13.5 @ 36 PSI so turn up the pressure to 43 and you should be real close (need a mathmetician or an actual flow test to be sure).

Thanks for the tip! I found this website

http://www.nitrostreet.com/injectors.htm

Seems to back up what you said. Looking on rock auto, a mid 90's ford ranger shows the white ford injectors. Should be easy enough to find at the junkyard.

I wonder how they would work when paired with a hughes stage one throttle body?

The throttle body is not a restriction on a stock engine, I did a big gulp and it didn't change fuel trim near WOT or improve mpg or seat of the pants dyno testing. The superheated air in the intake is the restriction, ain't gonna get much air mass when its that hot and those small ports. Combine it with some other stuff and it probably would make a difference.

very good man!
Its turning out to be a great read here

One my 97 5.2 I looked down the throttle body and could that the bottom of the plenum was wet with oil. Installed a set of Felpro gaskets and has been good since.

I was about to say this... It's the best way to check for blown plenum gasket. Look down the throttle body for oil puddled on bottom of intake.

Oil consumption is a good sign,but you don't know if your consumption is an external leak, valve seals, worn out rings, stuck open PCV, or blown plenum.

Great Info,
on the hot air issue, I wonder if the M1 intake would help out with that problem..

For a Durango that's not going to probably tow a whole lot I'd look at the Hughes Engines Edelbrock Air Gap set up they have for the Magnums. You lose low end torque, but gain some upper end hp and get away from the plenum gasket issue

The m1 single plane gives up tons of TQ the Hughes gives up a significant amount but not as bad as the M1. IAT deffinately runs cooler and pinging quits with those two intake but the runners are not long enough to make that great off idle TQ the beer barrel does. I done both on stock engines and the low end bites in a Ram 2500 and the top end did not justify the loss down low.

The beer barrel cuts off about 4500 RPM, I had one in my R/T and that was about where it quit, did an awesome long tube headers and 3 inch exhaust mandrel bent with an X pipe and it barely made a difference, then added a hughes air gap and it would pull with a stock cam clean to 5500.

If you are not doing the intake AND exhaust you will not see much difference but do em together and look out.

Thanks Guys, I don't plan on towing much, lawn mower, small things etc.
Mainly my people mover...

Even on otherwise stock engines, I've not heard anyone complain about the M1 intakes, and with more than enough torque to blow the tires off in smoke...there was no way to know for sure if there was any loss in low end.

Now, that is with the R/T crowd who does not tow with their trucks, so the results could very well be opposite in a full size truck that tows a significant amount of weight.

You can add an M1 without retuning the engine and it will run ok, but you can run SCT even on a bone stock engine and pick up power and mileage. With a stock engine or nearly stock, you can run "canned" tunes and not have to worry about custom tuning from running different heads, cams, strokers, etc.